Strong waves, reminiscent of Baler’s Sabang Beach, slammed the shore of Boracay White Beach. I set my camera on a tripod and tried to capture the force of water against sand. The weather, however, had other things in mind. It poured a slather of rain, which the wind promptly picked up, and whipped against me and my not-so-waterproof camera. I was drenched.

BEACH HUTS AT THE WHITE BEACH

Taking shelter on an empty wooden pergola along the beach, I let the heavens weep it all down. The plan was to walk the whole stretch of Boracay’s White Beach, from Station Three to Station One, and back again.

It was thirty minutes past three in the afternoon when the rain finally abated. It was finally time to walk. Station Three, considered the cheapest area in Boracay in terms of lodgings and restaurants, was my starting point. The cream-colored sand was unimpressive. I picked a handful, it was course and grainy.

The sun was quickly retreating down horizon as we alighted from our van. I hurried towards Patar White Beach, Bolinao’s renowned public beach, my feet dragging on its golden sand. I plodded on, knowing full well that the window for the day’s most beautiful light would soon come to pass.

PATAR WHITE BEACH DURING WEEKDAYS

Patar White Beach’s cream-colored sand, sidely lit by the sinking sun, mimicked the gentle lapping waves of the shore. I took my sandals off and my toes promptly sank beneath the soft yellow granules. I set up my gear, surveyed the seemingly endless beach and saw that besides the locals enjoying the sunset, we were almost the only tourist in the area.

If there’s one thing Bacolod City is well known for, it’s the multitude of food places that line its avenues. There are expensive cafés and posh restaurants of every kind out there, but there are also sidewalk carinderia eateries that shouldn’t be ignored. The most popular of these are the stalls that line Manokan Country, here the famous chicken inasal is king.

MASSKARA MASKS AT MANOKAN COUNTRY

Still groggy from our almost ‘til morning infinity pool drinking session at Melba’s Farm, we headed to Bacolod City’s Manokan Country for our breakfast grub. The plan for the day was to check out Mambukal’s seven waterfalls, we reckon we’ll need all the calories we could get for the trek ahead.

Boom. The force of an exploding dynamite inside a dark and claustrophobic gold mine isn’t really what you wanted to experience during a tour. But there it was, its strong shockwave still reverberating through our whole being as we removed our hands from our earS and checked our limbs if they were still complete.

A SCULPTURE DEDICATED TO THE MINERS OF BALATOC

Our day started off mundanely enough. From our suite at the Azalea Residences Baguio, we went down to the restaurant for the requisite buffet breakfast (Baguio longganisa, check) before boarding a van to the nearby town of Itogon, still in the province of Benguet.

Like grave raiders on a Steven Spielberg movie, we silently moved through the dilapidated halls of the abandoned Manila Metropolitan Theater, our steps creepily echoing through its deserted corridors, our flashlights crisscrossing through its dark cobwebbed corners.

The MET, as it is usually referred to, has not always been this way.

The Manila Metropolitan Theater used to be revered as the Grand Old Dame of Manila Theater. This Art Deco gem was once the center of cultural expression in the country before the Cultural Center of the Philippines was built.

It was twelve noon and it was a scorcher of a day. People with cameras swinging about their necks were milling about in front of the Manila Post Office, chatting and hanging around the shades provided by the huge trees that dot the park in Lawton’s Liwasang Bonifacio.

Everyone present was here for one thing only, the free Royal Postal Heritage Guided Tour spearheaded by the Filipinas Stamp Collectors Club and Apo Philatelic Club.

Garbed in a velvety maroon dress and embroidered with glittering gold flourishes, the dark-skinned Poong Itim na Nazareno of Quiapo is currently making its rounds across the streets of the country’s capital, Manila. Surrounding the caroza where the venerated icon with its black cross is precariously perched, is a roiling sea of devotees in maroons and yellows chanting Viva Senor! Viva! Viva!

The morning was just starting as I arrived at Quiapo Church in the heart of Manila. The historic Plaza Miranda was already filled by people from all walks of life; barefooted devotees, street vendors hawking shirts and white towels, media outfits covering the event, religious cults, and the usual bystanders curious about the biggest religious festival this side of the Philippines.

►NEAR HERE: MA MON LUK

Coming from a five-day tour of the Capiz province, I had to find an accommodation in Kalibo for my mini-side trip to Aklan before going back home to Manila. I asked around and everyone seemed to be pointing to a single lodging, the La Esperanza Hotel along the town’s main avenue.

Located at Osmena Avenue, it’s literally a stone throw’s away from the bus terminal that plies the provinces around the island of Panay. It took not a minute for me to get up from my seat, alight the bus and enter La Esperanza’s homey lobby. The only thing in locating this inn is that it is a bit hidden from view, its street front being blocked from view by a Landbank branch.

►NEAR HERE: KALIBO CATHEDRAL

I was weighing my options during my last few hours in Kalibo in the province of Aklan. The past day has me scrambling in the town of Tangalan to view its seven-tiered Jawili Falls, its neighboring Jawili Beach, and its old church, the St. John Nepomucene Church or Jawili Church.

Earlier in the day, I strolled through Kalibo’s very own Bakhawan Eco-Park. I was tired, but still have enough energy not to waste my stay in the town famous for its Ati-Atihan Festival.

I walked along aimlessly around town. Just letting my two slow feet lead me to anywhere it might. I chanced upon Kalibo’s town plaza and found a cream-colored belfry complete with a weathervane jutting out from the trees just above the horizon.

Aha! A church! I’m not sure if it’s an old one, but I decided to check it out nonetheless.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE HOTELS IN KALIBO

The rickety bamboo pathway creaked under my weight as my foot descended in stride. I was walking along at the massive Mangrove Forest in Kalibo, the Bakhawan Eco-Park, spending a day before my flight back to Manila at one of the most peaceful sanctuaries in the province of Aklan.

The Bakhawan Eco-Park, as it is officially called, is a sprawling 220-hectare mud flat that has been transformed into a mangrove haven by the Aklanons, NGOs (particularly Kalibo Save the Mangroves) and the local government.

Bakhawan is a local Visayan term for mangroves.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE HOTELS IN KALIBO

I alighted from a motorbike, my hair all windswept and my knees wobbly from the ride. I glanced briefly at Tangalan Church, the St. John Nepomucene parish, and the darkening evening before heading straight to a barbecue vendor. Laying down two sticks of isaws on her grill, I immediately paid with a hundred-peso bill and waited for my change, I needed a couple of twenties for my ride back to civilization.

Shadows were looming as I started my two-hour walk back to Tangalan’s town proper a couple of hours back. After witnessing a gorgeous sunset at Jawili Beach, I was forced to walk back to town since there were no more tricycles plying the road to Poblacion. Flagging anything with a headlight, a motorcycle finally slowed down and allowed me to hitch a ride.
 
The guy was clearly drunk and he drove like a horde of aswangs were on our tail.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN TANGALAN

The sun fired off its last rays of the day. The clouds streaked, burning bright orange across the waning blue sky. I stood awed for a moment, unsure where to position my camera. The whole stretch of Jawili Beach sprawled right before my eyes. I was all alone to witness this moment, without a soul to share its beauty.

Packing up my equipment after shooting Tangalan’s Jawili Falls in Aklan, I decided to follow a sign from a dirt road I passed earlier in the day. A blue starfish painted on a white plywood. An arrow right beside it pointed to something a hundred and fifty meters ahead.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN TANGALAN

Huffing and puffing, I made my way towards the hundred-foot apex of Jawili Falls in Tangalan. Its numerous basins came into full view as I reached its highest elevation. I counted and reached up to seven. I mounted a camera on my tripod and heaved a sigh, I finally reached one of the not-so-famous waterfalls of Aklan.

Coming from a four-day tour of Capiz, it was just a few hours since I arrived in Aklan. After quickly dropping my bag at the La Esperanza Hotel Kalibo, I boarded a bus again, this time to the quiet town of Tangalan.

Aklan is known for two things, the world famous Island of Boracay and Kalibo’s Ati-Atihan Festival. Other than that, I haven’t heard anything else about the province. Since I still have two days before my flight back to Manila, I decided to check out places not usually found on the tourist map.

►SEE: BORACAY TRAVEL GUIDE

It was my last day in the Province of Capiz. After visiting Kalikasan Falls in Camp Peralta at the break of dawn, the group has now broken company—each one going off to his own destination. Me, I was gonna go back to Kalibo in the province of Aklan, where my flight back to Manila was.

En route, I passed through the sleepy town of Mambusao.

While waiting at a shed across the Mambusao town plaza for the bus, I spied upon a curious-looking church some meters from where I was standing, the St. Catherine of Alexandria Church.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN CAPIZ

I’ve seen quite a lot of Catholic churches in the Philippines during my stint as a traveler but I’ve never seen anything quite like Mambusao Church. It’s façade is definitely unique with its spidery curving upper portion. It sort of reminds me of a Tim Burton movie setting.

Still dazed from a night of beerless talk at one of the dugouts of Camp Peralta, we gingerly descended a hand-strewn path towards Kalikasan Falls. Our group holed up at the town of Jamindan in the province of Capiz. It was the first time I spent a night at a military camp and we were unsure if beers were allowed.

The morning shone bright as we boarded a military truck towards one of the five waterfalls that has been discovered inside Camp Macario Peralta. Military camps are not usually jotted down into itineraries by travelers, but this 33,310-hectare camp in Capiz is actually planning to open their gates to eco-tourism.

►ALSO STAYED HERE: MBLT-6 CAMP SULU

Stalactites creep down from the darkened ceiling of Lahab Cave in Dumalag, Capiz like frozen slimy alien tentacles. Our local guide, perched above a crevice overlooking the entrance of the cave looked down, probably checking the trail we were about to endure on our way into the bowels of the Earth.

I looked down to the supposed trail and said to myself, what trail?

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN CAPIZ

Our fourth day in Capiz didn’t start so strange.

After a pleasant overnight stay at Maribert Inland Resort, we immediately boarded our van and headed to the nearby town of Dumalag—our itinerary for the whole day, nothing but cave exploration.

My first experience spelunking was at Norzagaray’s Pinagrealan Cave. It was a fairly easy cave to conquer but I know my limits when it comes to physically demanding activities. So I can’t help but feel a bit of trepidation as we alighted at the gates of Suhot Cave and Natural Spring Resort.

Cheap hotdogs. Pork barbecues. Chicken heads. Betamax. Isaws. Adidas. Everything covered?

Not by a long shot.

After spending the whole afternoon hopping across gigantic boulders to and from President Roxas’ Liktinon Falls, the gang decided that we should reward ourselves with a little bit of street food before retiring for the night at the Maribert Inland Resort.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN CAPIZ

Everyone was familiar with the skewered street fares along the dusky streets of President Roxas. The whole sticky shebang were stuck upright on a banana trunk, as is the case with barbecue stands in the provinces. The familiar smell of roasting meat called to us like music from the pied piper.

Like every traveler worth his backpacking salt, we asked for something different. Something local.

At long last we heard the gush of rushing waters.

We were told that President Roxas’ Liktinon Falls was a mere fifteen minutes away from the Barangay Bayuyan jump-off point. Knees shaking, out of breath and ready to collapse, it took a good hour and a half before we reached one of the hidden waterfalls of Capiz.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN CAPIZ

It was the third day of our Capiz trip courtesy of the Roxas City Tourism Office. After munching on local kakanins at the Pontevedra Market, the group headed to the town of President Roxas to chase waterfalls. The jump-off trail looked quite easy and relaxed.

But looks can indeed be deceiving.

I’m not a big fan of crabs when it comes to seafood, preferring the much easier to eat shrimps and squids. It’s just so cumbersome to eat that I usually get tired digging for meat even before the meal ends. But it’s a different story when in Capiz, where super-sized mud crabs abound at the Pontevedra Market. With its size, I’m pretty sure its claws would be more than enough for my whole meal.

It was a fine sunny day, our third one in the province of Capiz, as we alighted from the van provided by the provincial tourism office. We dropped by the Pontevedra Market to check out the big-ass mud crabs that are regularly sold there by locals.

►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE LODGINGS IN CAPIZ

It’s almost ten in the evening and the dragons inside my stomach were scorching fire.

I was up before the sun rose at the Roxas City Cathedral, was shooting the colors of the Sinadya sa Halaran before a proper breakfast, was walking along the crunchy Baybay Beach come lunchtime, was climbing the biggest bell in Asia as the afternoon wore on, and was rolling with the devotees of the Prosesyon sa Suba as evening overtook the land.

It was one heck of a day and I was terribly hungry.

But we didn’t go straight to dinner. A quick trip to the People’s Park Plaza near Baybay Beach to witness Roxas City’s dancing fountain came first. It looked nice with kids playfully zipping through the waters.

But I was really really hungry now.

►SIMILAR: VIGAN DANCING FOUNTAIN